South Carolina town approves ordinance banning sagging pants

A South Carolina town easily passed an ordinance Tuesday to ban sagging pants, a clothing style that could result in a fine of several hundred dollars.

The Timmonsville town council approved the measure in a 5-to-1 vote, according to WMBF.

The exact wording of the ordinance is as follows:

It shall be unlawful for any person driving or walking in the streets and roads of the Town of Timmonsville to:

(a) Engage in public nudity;

(b) display pornographic material such that others are unwantingly exposed to the same or that minors are able to view the same;

(c) display the flesh of one's rear-end, behind, or backside during stationary or movement within the city limits;

(d) wear pants, trousers, or shorts such that the known undergarments are intentional [sic] displayed/exposed to the public.

The first offense is punishable by a verbal warning, the second with a written warning and the addition of the sagger's name to a law enforcement registry and the third by a fine of as much as $600.

The ordinance is similar to one that passed in South Carolina's Jasper County in 2008.

"It had become a nuisance to me and most of the citizens of the county," Jasper County Councilman LeRoy Blackshear told The Columbia State after the passage of that ordinance. "And not just in this county, but in most of the places that you went, in surrounding counties people were wearing their pants below their waistline, and, to me, it just wasn't the appropriate thing to do.